Epicurus, Happiness, and the Good Life

The key to happiness is found in living a simple life that is lacking in extravagance

Epicurus argued that the key to happiness is living a simple life lacking in extravagance and doing so in the company of friends and loved ones. However, Epicurus was not an aesthetic. He did not advocate self-denial or self-abasement for its own sake. Rather, Epicurus could be considered an advocate of hedonistic ethics in the sense of favoring what would bring the individual the most pleasure and enjoyment as the foundation of ethical values. In many ways, Epicurus was also a forerunner to utilitarianism in the sense of believing that maximizing the experience of pleasure over pain is the highest human value. Epicurus did not teach amorality. Rather, he believed that individuals should seek to be virtuous in order to avoid the pain associated with bad conscience. Epicurus is widely misinterpreted as advocating self-destructive forms of pleasure, such as, for example, drunkenness (Bakalis 76). However, Epicurus believed that the pursuit of happiness should be done in a manner that was consistent with a rational approach to life.